Polls show Gov. Pawlenty has a fairly strong public support. He's going to have to put it on the line to get his casino plan through the Legislature. He didn't run for office on a plan to open a state-run casino. In fact, just the opposite. He said many times during the 2002 campaign that he didn't think the state should be in the business of sponsoring gambling. Friday he will travel the state trying to sell a casino plan.

MPR's Michael Khoo sets up some of the challenges facing the proposal in the Legislature:

[DFL Sen. Sandy] Pappas is the chief Senate sponsor of the bill. She says once the facility is open for business, it should generate more than $100 million a year for the state, with an unspecified amount left for the tribes to divide among themselves. But Pappas says even the lure of new state revenue may not be enough to sway her fellow lawmakers to back the plan.

"It's tough going with just the tribal casino. I don't know that there's the votes to do it. But we will work hard to convince people," Pappas says.

Pappas acknowledges that her fellow Democrats are uneasy about approving a new casino -- and that Republicans prefer slot machines at the Canterbury Park race track rather than a state-tribal partnership.

In the Pioneer Press Patrick Sweeney raises another potential hurdle:

Pawlenty's proposed state-tribal gaming partnership also is likely to face a critical review from Attorney General Mike Hatch. He will advise legislators on the constitutionality of a legal strategy that calls for the casino's slot machines to be operated as an extension of the Minnesota Lottery.

"We don't have an opinion yet, but we're troubled by it," Hatch said of the Pawlenty plan.

Hatch said his staff has begun to review old legislative transcripts to determine what lawmakers intended almost two decades ago when they wrote a constitutional amendment that allowed the lottery to be created.

That amendment, approved by voters in 1988, is the legal basis for the proposed casino, which would be operated as a partnership between the Minnesota Lottery and tribes.

Translation: even if the Legislature passes a casino plan, expect a lawsuit to delay its opening. Who might file such a lawsuit? How about the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, which represents eight other tribal casino operations. Patricia Lopez has this in the Star Tribune:

John McCarthy, MIGA's executive director, has said that his tribes have plowed millions back into their reservations' amenities and infrastructure, but also shared their bounty with surrounding communities.

McCarthy said Thursday that should the plan pass, the expansion will not end with the metro casino.

"Las Vegas in Minnesota, here we go," he said. "Every third commercial on TV will be gambling. That's what the governor is creating."

Legal challenges to the plan are almost certain, McCarthy said, both from tribes and nontribal interests. The legislation that enabled the state Lottery, he said, was never intended to include casinos.

McCarthy also said flatly that Pawlenty had broken an early promise to the tribes not to expand gambling.

"The governor has dishonored himself," McCarthy said. Both in private talks with tribal leaders and at a Minnesota Chippewa dinner early in his term, he said, Pawlenty vowed that he would not expand gambling during his administration. "Now we're going to have the biggest expansion of gambling in 15 years," McCarthy said.

Gov. Pawlenty has one advantage in his pursuit of the casino. Polls show a majority of Minnesotans favor the plan. But it's still going to be a tough, bruising battle at the Capitol that will likely take lots of twists and turns.

Earlier this week I noted the passing of abortion rights lobbyist Sue Rockne. I wanted to send along this e-mail I received from Maureen Keating Tsuchya:

I thought that Sue Rockne had beat that ugly scourge of cancer.

Personally, Sue taught me & several hundred others how to caucus and count at
the 1980 annual meeting of the DFL Feminist Caucus. I have since used that vital
skill in Texas, New York, and even Japan, where in 1996 I conducted the
Democrats Abroad Country Caucus. Later that year I was elected a member of the DNC from Asia and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago where I re-connected with many old friends (and a few enemies) from the Minnesota delegation.

Sue was a incredibly tough, loud and fearless feminist. We will continue to
carry on in her name.

She was also an engaging and amusing source for political journalists with a real knack for getting herself quoted.